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Putin's Illiberal Democracy

Putin's Illiberal Democracy

Bill of Rights Constitutional Rights in Action Foundation SUMMER 2016 Volume 31 No 4 PUTIN’S ILLIBERALDEMOCRACY President of (CC BY 4.0) BY (CC Russia of President Russian President speaking at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow in 2012 for the Russian National Awards.

If you are a citizen of Russia today and you join an unautho- The Promise of rized demonstration or protest, you may be fined $9,000 and Twenty-five years ago, the collapsed. face years in prison. If you plan a demonstration but fail to The Pact, the legal framework for Russia’s half first get approval from the , or if a demonstra- tion for which you obtained approval causes property dam- century of domination of Eastern Europe, was officially age, you may be in for a much bigger fine and hard labor. terminated and many of the USSR (Soviet) republics achieved independence. The newly liberated states in- The subject of your demonstration can also cause stituted popular throughout, as did Russia it- you trouble. For example, if the demonstration you self, making it seem that the world was entering a new want to organize is for gay pride, you can be sure that phase of peace where the principles of Western-style your request for authorization will be denied. More- would flourish. over, you can be prosecuted for “offending the reli- The reality is that of former Soviet re- gious feelings of believers” if you question the publics often had the trappings of democracy but main- existence of God in an online forum, like a blog or tained an illiberal, or authoritarian, character. For chatroom. example, President Lukashenko of And if you are a political leader, your party must has held office since 1994. In 1996, he disbanded par- be sanctioned by the government. You might also pay liament but soon replaced it with a new parliament full for unsanctioned political activity with your very life. of his handpicked allies. He has bragged to the press of How did these circumstances arise in Russia? his “authoritarian ruling style.”

ELECTIONS AND DEMOCRACY This edition of Bill of Rights in Action looks at case studies of factors affecting democratic processes in elections. The first arti- cle examines the rise of in Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. The second article looks at the un- expected of Truman to the U.S. presidency in 1948. The third article explores the impact and implications of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. World History/Current Issues: “Putin’s Illiberal Democracy,” by guest writer Patrick Jenning. U.S. History: “Harry Truman and the Election of 1948,” by guest writer Lucy Eisenberg, Esq., and CRF senior editor Damon Huss. U.S. Government/Current Issues: “Elections, Money, and the First Amendment,” by longtime contributor Carlton Martz.

© 2016, Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles. All Constitutional Rights Foundation materials and publications, including Bill of Rights in Action, are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators. (ISSN: 1534-9799) Library of Congress

rights. The country also moved from a government- planned to a market economy. The government dis- tributed ownership of state-owned industries to private individuals. Unfortunately, despite attempts to ensure fair and equal distribution throughout the population, owner- ship of most enterprises ended up in the hands of gov- ernment and management insiders. In addition, the transition from a state-planned to a market-driven econ- omy led to serious drops in economic activity, severe in- flation, job losses, and shortages of consumer goods. The Rise of Putin From an early age, Vladimir Putin had wanted to join the KGB (the Soviet Union’s spy and security or- ganization). He pursued his goal despite the opposi- tion of his parents, both factory workers who had survived the siege of Leningrad during World War II. Told that the intelligence service preferred students Tsar Nicholas II (center) with members of his family, the Romanovs, with law degrees, he then enrolled at Leningrad State circa 1913. The tsar’s suppression of political opponents and handling University, hoping to be recruited. of World War I led to his abdication. He and his family were later ex- ecuted by the ruling Bolsheviks (Communists) in 1918. At last, in his final year of university, he was offered a positon in the KGB. He spent the first years of his ca- Since 1999, Vladimir Putin, the current president reer as a agent, monitoring the ac- of Russia, and his personal friends — wealthy busi- tivities of foreigners in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). nessmen, military figures, and members of the intelli- In the early 1980s, Putin received training in for- gence services — have dominated Russia’s economy, eign and was sent to East Germany, where media, and political life. Russian military might is he worked with the East German intelligence agency, once again being used to threaten neighboring states the . His job was to find candidates suitable for and bolster Russian power abroad. The promise of a intelligence missions in the West that targeted West- democratic Russia seems to be vanishing. ern technology. When the Soviet collapsed in 1991, Putin Russia: A Long History of Tyranny returned to St. Petersburg. There he headed academic Before 1991, Russians had enjoyed perhaps only and governmental organizations involved with pro- seven months of democracy in a thousand years of its moting international relations and trade for the city. history. A feudal society until the early 18th century, By 1996, he had moved on to Moscow, where he Russia became a great European power under the Ro- would head a number of positions in the manov Tsars (monarchs), who kept a large part of the regime, including the Federal Security Services, a suc- population in serfdom (semi-slavery) and controlled the cessor to the KGB. During this time, he also completed rest of the population with secret police, press restric- work on his dissertation for a Candidate in Science in tions, political imprisonment, exile, and execution. Economics, equivalent to a PhD in the West. The Tsarist monarchy was overthrown in a popu- Yeltsin appointed Putin to be acting prime minis- lar uprising in March 1917, which ushered in a brief ter in August 1999. One month later, a series of apart- period of Russian democracy. But that democratic ex- ment house bombings in Russian cities killed nearly periment ended five months later, when the Commu- 300 people. The Russian government blamed terror- nist Party came to power through revolution in ists from Chechnya, a largely Muslim former state of October 1917. Picking up where the monarchy left off, the Russian Federation. The Chechens had success- the Communist Party instituted old Tsarist practices fully gained independence a few years earlier after and added political indoctrination, widespread prop- fighting Russian forces to a stalemate. aganda, mass internal deportations, and prohibitions After the apartment bombings, Putin ordered the on the ownership of property and business. resumption of military operations in Chechnya. By Feb- With the end of Communist domination in 1991, ruary 2000, Russian forces had retaken Chechnya’s cap- Russia was poised for a birth of political and economic ital, Grozny, and began the process of reintegrating freedom. Under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin, the Chechnya into the Russian Federation. first President of the Russian Federation, laws were Meanwhile, in late December 1999, Yeltsin resigned passed to assure political freedom and individual suddenly and named Putin as acting president. Three

2 WORLD HISTORY/CURRENT ISSUES BRIA 31:4 (Summer 2016) months later, Putin was formally elected president, having secured more than 50 percent of the votes.

Putin in Charge Relatively unknown when he took over from Yeltsin, Putin focused on rebuilding Russia’s economy and reestablishing its international position in the world. Dur- ing his first two terms as president, from 2000 to 2008, Russia enjoyed impressive economic growth, due in large part to a worldwide surge in crude oil prices, one of Russia’s principal exports. Russia is the largest supplier of natural gas in the world, and its main customers are nations in the Eu-

ropean Union. Over the eight years of Putin’s first two 4.0) BY (CC Russia of President terms, Russia’s economy grew 70 percent, its poverty Russian President Boris Yeltsin handing over power to Vladimir rate was cut in half, and disposable income doubled. Putin, who would then serve as acting president, in 1999. By 2008, Russia had regained the economic power it had experienced at the end of the Soviet empire, al- which is often heavily controlled by Putin’s allies, has though it continued to suffer a high rate of inflation. kept many opponents of off the ballot. Putin’s popularity grew alongside the Russian Political demonstrations are also severely re- economy. In 2000, he won the election with 53 per- stricted. Remember that protestors must obtain gov- cent of the votes. In 2004, he won with 71.9 percent. ernmental approval for demonstrations or face heavy As the Russian constitution limits a president to two fines and possible imprisonment. consecutive terms, Putin could not run in 2008. Many international organizations, such as Instead of running again, Putin endorsed and sup- and Human Rights Watch, ported his protégé and former campaign manager, have been forced to register as foreign agents, sub- Dimitri Medvedev. Medvedev won with 71percent and jecting them to audits and raids in which the state then appointed Putin prime minister of the Duma, seizes their operating documents and records. Mean- Russia’s legislature. Four years later, in 2012, while, the Russian government has accused both Medvedev stepped aside as Putin ran a third time for demonstrators and international rights organizations president, winning with a 63.6 percent majority. of representing the interests of the . International monitoring groups complained of sig- Russia has also entered into what we in the United nificant irregularities in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. States call the “culture wars.” Under a federal law “for Opinion polls taken at the time, however, showed high the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information approval ratings for Putin. Still, opposition to him and Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values,” his party, United Russia, has grown it is illegal to promote “non-traditional over the last few years. Massive From an early sexual relationships.” The intent of the demonstrations against election fraud law became clear with the first person followed the 2011 Duma elections as age,Vladimir Putin arrested for violating it: a young man well as Putin’s election in 2012. who held a banner stating “Being gay Some observers claim that fraud had wanted to and loving gays is normal. Beating gays in the 2012 presidential election ac- and killing gays is a crime!” counted for as much as 14 percent join the KGB. Religious freedom is another culture of Putin’s majority, and that Putin war in Russia. A 2002 law defines “ex- should have had to face a second round of . It tremism” as promoting the “exclusivity, superiority, or in- is difficult to believe that he would not have won a feriority of citizens” based on religion. This led to banning run-off, however, as the nearest competitor was the several translations of the Koran (Islam’s most sacred Communist Party, which only polled 17 percent. text) in 2007 and imprisoning readers of the banned ma- terials. In 2016, Russian authorities prosecuted a man A Declining Democracy who wrote “there is no God” in an online chatroom Putin’s control of Russia’s political life has in- under a 2013 law against offending persons of faith. The creased since his last election. This is partly due to the crime carries a maximum punishment of one year in jail. large number of candidates from obscure parties who As a result of these laws, most international have failed to come together to challenge United Rus- democracy monitoring organizations now regard sia. In addition, a law requiring candidates to obtain Russia as one of the least democratic nations. One the support of 10 percent of the regional legislature, such organization is . “The Russian

BRIA 31:4 (Summer 2016) WORLD HISTORY/CURRENT ISSUES 3 government seems determined to prevent free expres- suggest that he has tapped into illiberal biases devel- sion in any form,” said Freedom House President oped in 20th century Russian society. Mark P. Lagon in 2015, “including in social media.” On the other hand, it can be argued that the Russ- Putin and his supporters disagree, claiming that ian population has been misled by the Putin govern- Russian democracy is just different from Western lib- ment, which owns or indirectly controls Russian eral democracy. He calls it “.” television and much of its press. Indeed, since Putin’s Sergei Markov, a scholar and adviser to Putin, de- rise to power, almost two dozen journalists investi- scribes majoritarian democracy this way: gating government corruption have been murdered. In the West there are elaborate protections for mi- was a journalist critical of norities, whereas in Russia the protection of the Putin. He had publicly claimed that Russian secret majority is the priority. It’s still democracy . . . . services were behind the 1999 apartment house [M]inorities must subordinate themselves to the bombings. He then died by poisoning in the United interests of the majority . . . . Kingdom, and the government of the By contrast, protecting minority rights, or civil has linked his death directly to Putin. rights, is a hallmark of liberal democracy. For example, Putin’s government has also targeted opposition the United States Constitution was amended to in- political leaders, most notably . clude the Bill of Rights specifically to limit the power Nemtsov denounced Putin for Russia’s military ag- of government, especially over individuals. James gression in the and was shot dead on a bridge Madison himself warned against the “superior force near less than two weeks later. of an interested and overbearing majority.” This record of punishment of political and reli- Majoritarian democracy, or , gious dissent concerns human rights advocates world- as Putin has defined it elsewhere, appears to be work- wide. Also, given the Russian people’s apparent ing for him. His approval ratings climbed in the years endorsement of restrictions on civil rights and free- following the 2012 election, in part because the Russ- dom of expression, it is hard to be optimistic about ian population supported his aggressive foreign pol- the future of democracy in Putin’s Russia. icy. Like Putin, many Russians regret the loss of global influence Russia suffered following the demise of the DISCUSSION & WRITING Soviet Union and are suspicious of Western culture 1. Before 1991, how much experience did the Russian and Western interference in Russian affairs. Putin’s people have with democracy? Describe how that regime carried out military actions not just in Chech- could affect the present population’s attitudes to- nya, but also in , Crimea, Ukraine, and Syria, ward civil rights and liberties. all of which bolstered his approval rating to almost 90 2. What was Putin’s path to the presidency of the percent in the first months of 2016. Russian Federation? What accomplishments made him popular with the Russian people? Russian Democracy’s Future 3. What restrictions have been placed on democracy Some have argued that Putin’s policies and popu- under Putin’s administration? Contrast “majoritar- larity can be traced to Russia’s conservative and im- ian democracy” with “liberal democracy” with ex- perialistic roots in the Tsarist and Soviet eras. Putin’s amples from the article. easy election wins and high approval ratings certainly ACTIVITY: Russian History and Freedom 1. Divide the class into eight groups. Assign each group one of the following Russian leaders: Catherine the Great Nicholas I Alexander I Alexander II Nicholas II Vladimir Lenin 2. Each group will research the following issues about the respective reigns of the above leaders: • What were the notable events during his or her reign? • How did he or she view Russia’s role in the world? • How was the government organized under his or her reign? • How much freedom did the people have during his or her reign? 3. Each group presents its findings to the class. 4. Engage the class in a discussion to compare Putin’s Russia to the Russia of his predecessors.

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4 WORLD HISTORY/CURRENT ISSUES BRIA 31:4 (Summer 2016)

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